Talking Points

The Witch Hunt Continues...

Hi, I'm Bill O'Reilly. Thanks for watching us tonight. The witch hunting against Bill Bennett continues. That is the subject of this evening's Talking Points Memo.

Two weeks after Dr. Bennett was embarrassed by his gambling exposure, another vicious hit piece appeared yesterday in The New York Times. Frank Rich, a Times columnist, gleefully makes the case that Bennett is a hypocrite, thus joining the witch hunting crew led by Michael Kinsley.

Now, we all know secularists, people who don't want any judgments made about personal behavior, inhabit the halls of the elite media here in New York and in Washington, and these people are very powerful despite the fact most Americans disagree with them. Most Americans believe there are standards of behavior, and that is what Bill Bennett believes.

Bennett's basic tenet is children imitate the behavior of their parents and, therefore, children should provide good examples and precise moral training for their kids. Bennett is a traditionalist, a religious guy, and he's also a conservative politically. All of those things are hated by people like Frank Rich, who never met a cheap shot he didn't embrace.

In his column yesterday [Sunday, May 18], Rich celebrates the fact gangsta rap has prospered, despite criticism from people like me and Bill Bennett. Rich entitled his column, "Tupac's Revenge", that being the demise of Bill Bennett.

So, what this comes down to is an American voice which implored parents to be good role models for their kids is under constant attack because of personal gambling activity. Frank Rich and other witch hunters would much rather the kids listen to Ludacris and Eminem than read The Book of Virtues by Bill Bennett, who played machine poker.

If Rich had any guts, which he doesn't, he would come on to The Factor, and I would ask him this question. Why do you want to destroy a man who wants American children to have morals and outstanding behavior? Why do you want to do that, Mr. Rich? How does that help this country?

The truth is it doesn't help the country. The destruction of Bill Bennett only helps people like Rich, whose view of life is lets tolerate almost anything, except people with whom we disagree. Let's destroy them.

Talking Points believes most Americans see the Bill Bennett story for what it is, an attempt to silence one of the few voices that is calling for parental responsibility and a society that values decency. I don't know what gambling has to do with that. You can decide whether Mr. Bennett is a hypocrite, but you should also decide by the character of the people trying to destroy him. More on this coming up.

And that's The Memo.

The Most Ridiculous Item of the Day

Time now for "The Most Ridiculous Item of the Day"...

Our pal, Puff Daddy, is in St. Tropez, France, obviously ignoring our boycott of French goods and services, and the Puffmeister was caught in this pose, his butler shading him from the sun. Very working-class hero, don't you think?

Since Mr. Puffster has made his millions talking about street life, we wonder how many people in the hood have guys following them around with umbrellas. Perhaps many. Perhaps it's ridiculous.

And this is certainly not ridiculous, but we want to give you our new poll question on billoreilly.com. Should Annika Sorenstam from Sweden be allowed to play with the men golfers this week at the Colonial Open in Texas, all right.

Now it's a big controversy, if you play golf, follow the golf world. Annika is the best female golfer around. She wants to play with the guys. Should that be allowed to happen? All right. billoreilly.com has it.